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At his convention Harper rallies the troops, but beyond those walls, he is running into a bad case of voter fatigue.

Delegates vote on a resolution at the Conservative convention in Calgary on Saturday. The party faithful seemed happy with Stephen Harper's performance, Tim Harper writes. (Jeff McIntosh / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Stephen Harper returned home this weekend to deal with the clear unease among Conservatives, a sense that things were turning in the wrong direction, that events were spiraling beyond anyone’s control.

Hours later, the verdict was in at the late-night hospitality suites, a verdict clearly fuelled by either the open bar or a collective effort of hope over substance, but delegates somehow felt their concerns had been addressed.

On the evidence before them the verdict was puzzling.

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It was as if, as one former party official put it the following morning, the party, or at least the base that journeyed here, was “willing the Senate scandal away.’’

But a click of the heels and a plea to the heavens will not fix this and the real message from Harper seems to be that the Senate must heal itself and the man who once championed Senate reform now defines reform as booting Mike Duffy to the curb.

If the convention was to energize the soldiers Harper needs to carry the Conservative mantra to their wavering neighbours and work colleagues and to pound the pavement in campaign 2015, this weekend will be considered a qualified success.

Harper had to remind them of what brought them a majority, assure them they would regain health despite this vicious bout of the flu.

But beyond the convention hall, Harper reinforced a perception that his toughest opponent should he run again in 2015 will not be Justin Trudeau or Tom Mulcair, but voter fatigue.

By now, the Harper formula can be recited by any Canadian by rote.

Remind Conservatives that the world is against you.

Rail against the lobbyists, the academics and the bureaucrats and continue to style yourself as the outsider remaining aloof from the Ottawa “elites” and their big-spending “ivory tower vision.’’

Remind everyone that you didn’t go to Ottawa to join any private clubs.

To those opponents, bring the crowd to its feet with a rousing chorus of “I couldn’t care less what they say, we will do the right thing.’’

This, of course, ignores the obvious – that Harper is ensnared in scandal because of his appointments to the most deeply entrenched elite private club of all in the capital, the Senate.

In the prime minister’s world, we “deal with problems as they arise,’’ even though he finds himself in his current predicament because he did not deal with the Senate problem as it arose, but let it fester for months so that a problem grew up to become a crisis.

Among delegates here, many of whom were quite frank in their assessment of the challenges now facing Harper, the question of leadership was being debated in the corridors.

Not the leadership question which includes the names of Jason Kenney or James Moore or Peter MacKay, but the question of what constitutes leadership.

There was some unfulfilled yearning for a leader who could change tone and drop the angry outsider mask.

Leadership does not mean throwing yourself on the floor and delivering a self-flagellating mea culpa, but it should include an acknowledgement that an issue was mishandled, that lessons have been learned, that it will not happen in the future.

Instead, from Harper, the tried-and-true, create enemies, whether it is the courts, the media elites, the union bosses, your public servants or the opposition parties.

The tried-and-true has worked, of course, but the question is whether it can work indefinitely.

The faithful will return home feeling reassured, but it will be very short-lived.

Monday, Mike Duffy is still in the Senate, Mulcair is waiting in the Commons, police affidavits are yet to be filed, the first tranche of an auditor-general’s report on Senate spending still looms.

So, for the record here’s what changed here this weekend.

The prime minister, in an interview with Maclean’s Ken Whyte, believes there are too many head injuries in the NHL; Harper is pretty good with Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues; and a lovely late autumn turned to winter in Calgary while we all gathered for this convention.

Starting Monday, everything else everywhere else is as it was before anyone arrived here.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column usually appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca Twitter:@nutgraf1

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